ASHLEY TOMPKINS | Nancy's mostly level-headed teenage daughter. Her ambition is in direct proportion to her older brother's failures. She loves her mom but it's time to get out of Dodge.

ANDREA CHAPMAN | A somewhat wilted flower child, fortysomething Andrea has retreated to the outskirts of the city to recover after a horrible marriage.

Although it's commendable that they seem to be attempting to make the protagonists of the spin-off more racially diverse than the original, the characters themselves seem a little familiar. A straight manas the moral center, his incorrigible son, an abused(?) woman, an Andrea. One can only hope that Sean will be more complex than the milquetoast Rick, that Cody will be less annoying than the universally despised Carl, and that the female characters don't get so insufferable that the writers have no choice but to (spoiler!) kill them off.

The spin-off to the zombie apocalypse hit will take place in the same universe with the same zombie plague, but will follow characters that live in another part of the world. Showrunner Scott Gimple wasn't entirely enthusiastic about the prospects for a cross-over episode, but also proposed one future Walking Dead plotline in which it could work: "It's set in the world of The Walking Dead but from what I understand, it's not like Daryl's cousin or anything… I would never say never [to a crossover between the shows] because if I was a viewer I would say that sounds awesome. But we're doing our own show. I also think a crossover might be tough because it would take a lot of [license] within the comic story. We'll see. When we get to All Out War, who knows? We'll add another faction. It'll be the Saviors and the Hilltop and the 'Spin-offers.'"

"All Out War" refers to (spoilers!) an arc in the Walking Dead comics in which Rick and co. come into conflict with another faction called the Saviors, a cult that worships at the feet of charismatic villain Negan. Gimple has previously confirmed that the Saviors will be the Big Bad of an upcoming season.